Avondale
by Chaotic Heartless
Summary: [Mild Clouffie] A fic explaining why Tifa had such a hard time finding Cloud. Never once showing much of anyone's feeliings, to leave you wondering.


**Disclaimer: **This bish don't own shinizat. I most likely botchered these characters... Eeekos! Now, as long as someone doesn't kill me for sucking as these two, then I'll be good.

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The Radiant Garden was what it always was- a mixture of aged creations and stone structures that still stood strong, and pieces of amazing technology that shouldn't even exist. A world that was, in some areas- so warm, so loving and peaceful... Yet, in other ages, showed the signs of battles that had left more scars on those that had won, then those that had fallen that day.

One of the town's more famous people walked down the back alley ways. Impossible yellow hair- one of their more famous traits- stuck up as if the owner had been shocked rather painfully. They were dressed in black- it seemed to suit them, as their eyes were currently narrowed, sending off a 'don't approach me, and don't talk to me' aura to all those that would see them.

"Heya, spikes!"

Apparently, some were completely blind.

To those that didn't know him very well, it would appear as the man- 'Spikes'- wasn't even aware of the fact his name had been called. However, those that had any knowledge of the man's 'mild' expressions, would know that the slight twitch in his upper right eyebrow, and the strange flicker in his eyes, meant that he knew _very _well that she was there.

"Sppppppikkkkkkeees! Clloooooud!"

Apparently, she had learned a new trick- Cloud would have to place that into the back of his mind. For every time she yelled, it sounded as if her voice was coming out of all angles- an excellent trick, especially since it would take that much longer to make her shut up.

"Spike-y-Cloud-Wing-a-ling-dragon man... Thing..."

Now, that managed to get a reaction out of Cloud- a mildly raised golden eyebrow. However, in her rambling, she had messed up her trick- as Cloud was now heading towards the clearing of a cliff, he could tell that she was hiding somewhere in front of him. Did she really think he was that pathetic? He was a well trained warrior, and he could easily hear her scuffling around, although he couldn't see her- he knew she was getting ready to attack him.

He allowed a small, almost invisible smirk to come to his features. If she was going to try and pounce him, then so be it- he'd have fun countering her attack. He heard her approaching from the front, and he looked as casual as possible- merely standing there, perfectly still.

Silence...

He grunted loudly as he was pushed forward, not expecting the sudden kick to the spine. However, his reflexes were well trained, and before his attacker could get away, he had grabbed their foot in his hand and thrown them to the side, spinning his body as he did so to face them.

Yuffie flipped herself over in mid air, although a little bit messy, she pulled it off fairly as she landed upon one of the large, pinkish purple crystals. Yuffie seemed to balance perfectly upon them, or, at least give of the facade of not being afraid to lose her balance. She seemed extremely proud of herself- and who wouldn't be? She had managed to get a hit on the all powerful Cloud.

Cloud was mentally wondering how she'd mastered such a trick- however, now that he knew she could do such a thing, he was very aware that he would have to watch out for it.

"Surprised to see me, eh?"

The smirk on her lips betrayed the sound of a genuine greeting in her voice. Cloud pulled himself out of the battle stance that automatically seemed to happen when he was attacked. Blonde pieces of bang had fallen into his eyes and blocking them from Yuffie's view. When Cloud spoke, Yuffie couldn't pick up his tone, but she assumed he was very annoyed. "What?"

"What, what?" Yuffie stood on one foot atop the crystal, her balance never wavering as she allowed her expression to change into mock confusion.

Cloud's eyebrows narrowed, that much Yuffie could tell. "What do you want?" he seemed to end the conversation as soon as possible- and Yuffie couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, wondering why he couldn't have just answered her the first time- if he had, perhaps she wouldn't have gotten a chance to annoy him as much as she was...

However Yuffie logic seemed to work, it never _did_ match up with a normal person's logic.

"Tifa's looking for you."

Cloud became very still for a moment, before turning away from Yuffie. He spoke, his voice quiet and even as always. "I don't care."

Yuffie lost her balance at this point, her one foot slipping as she fell onto the large crystal, her shirt getting caught on a piece of it and riding up, as fell onto her behind- and then allowed herself to fall backwards onto her back, once again blowing something way out of proportion.

If she hadn't been withering and moaning in her own pain, she would have notice how Cloud's eyes had wondered to her uplifted shirt... Or rather, what it wasn't hiding. When she got up, she pulled down her shirt- causing his head to snap away as he started moving forward once again. Upon looking up, Yuffie only saw Cloud stalking away, much to her annoyance.

_'It's like he doesn't even notice I exist!'_ Yuffie thought with a mild glare. Shaking her head, she decided that she wouldn't allow herself to be ignored anymore.

Yuffie stepped forward, into the middle of the path as she narrowed her eyes, glaring at the back of his jacket. "Why're you always walking away?" even after she said these words, Yuffie didn't even realize she was hitting at something much bigger.

Cloud stopped, his eyes widening for a moment. Had she...? No, she didn't know. Slowly, once his expression had returned to it's normal state, he turned, giving her a rather hallow look. When he spoke, it was a struggle to keep his emotions from seeping into his voice. "Because I haven't found where I'm suppose to be yet."

Yuffie folded her arms over her chest, now angry at him- he didn't even care about how long Tifa had been searching for him. Despite the fact that she wasn't exactly close with the woman, she didn't exactly want to see her hurt. "But, you haven't even stopped to give Tifa a second glance- don't you care?"

A silence embraced them in it's cold hold, before finally, Cloud broke it. "I do, but not the way she cares about me."

Yuffie's eyebrows shot up, wondering why he was being so open now- but not caring to question it, afraid that he'd shut down again. "You don't care about either of them, do you?" now, Yuffie was speaking in riddles- she really hadn't meant to, but to find out what she wanted to know, she didn't exactly have a choice.

Cloud was getting annoyed- she just didn't see it, did she? Deciding not to tell her the full truth, he gave her the half assed response. "I told you, I care about both of them. But the way they care about me, I care about someone else."

Cloud wasn't exactly one that was good with words, but Yuffie managed to get what he meant. "Who, Squally?"

A long silence stretched and grew between them- one of them was utterly stunned, and the other was slowly becoming stunned, thinking there was truth to her words.

"I never knew, Spikes!" Yuffie exclaimed, when Cloud continued to stare at her- she assumed it was because it was true, not because he was stunned by the very fact she could _even _think that. "But, it makes sense! Don't worry, Cloudy, I'll make sure to keep Teefs keeps off your back until you can admit your feelings to him!" she winked, turning around quickly and walking back to town.

Cloud could only stare at her back for a moment, before shrugging and turning around, a small smile upon his lips. He wouldn't tell her today, but for now, at least he didn't have to worry about another awkward confrontation.

Unless of course, she managed to _tell_ Leon what she thought.

Upon that thought entering his mind, he stopped. Turning around rather quickly, he decided it was best not to trust Yuffie to keep a secret such as that.

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This is so bad.

I've never written as these two before, please bloody forgive me.

But there, we needed some more Clouffie... It just so happens to be my guilty pleasure that I couldn't live without.


End file.
